Friday, April 26, 2013

Goodbye Mary

RIP Mary McClive
Our dear little Mary, sister to Laura and niece to Cuddlepie left us suddenly last Wednesday 17 April due to kidney failure.
She is now reunited with her mother Snugglepot and sister Laura. We'll miss you Mary. The garden is now so quiet without your beautiful voice that used to greet us everytime we stepped out the back door.

Mary (one week old) and the Snork Maiden 2009

family portrait: Protective mother Snugglepot and her two babies Laura (r) and Mary (l).

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Movie making

The girls have caught the movie making bug.
Here is the Snork Maiden's latest blockbuster.




Friday, April 5, 2013

Electromagnets - Saturday Science

Hi this is P here for my second Saturday Science entry - this time on electromagnetism.

artist's impression of an electromagnet by P
 A little while ago Moomintroll was playing with a magnet on a string and picking up various items.  When it came to getting them off the magnet some vigorous shaking led to the topic of magnets that you could switch on and off.  Well, here we are on a Saturday and it's finally time to do the experiment!  We started looking at some of Moominmamma's art, and a bug on it seemed to come alive!  Actually, a bug paperclip with a magnet underneath (and some happy memories of a magnetic car driving game as a kid).



How strong are our magnets?  Well, they can hold a paperclip suspended in the air.  SnorkMaiden discovered she could make the paperclip spin by pulling the magnet in and out.  Interesting stuff!



What about electromagnets?  We watched a great video of one in action at a scrap yard



and then made some from a variety of bolts, some insulated wire and a C battery.  Talked a little bit about how all electricity generates a small magnetic field, and coiling the wire around a bolt increases the effect.  We picked up paperclips and a nail clipper and saw that some magnetism remained in the bolt for a short while even when the battery was disconnected.  Watch out for hot wires!





Tried to make a solenoid from wire wrapped around a nail in a straw.  It was much more fun to short out our battery-operated doorbell and watch the doorbell solenoid striker hitting the metal tone bars!  We finished with another video from my new science hero Derek Muller from Veritasium.  We strayed into induction theory, but left with the great image of a levitating BBQ plate


Thursday, April 4, 2013

March happenings

The students at the Brian Street Learning Centre have been busy working on various projects over the past month involving taxonomy, history, physics and dance.
Both girls are interested in British history thanks to the wonderful Horrible Histories series and they have begun a very large and ambitious poster of British monarchs from the time of William the Conqueror.


Work on this poster is ticking many boxes: research skills, art, english and maths (working out dates and how long each monarch reigned). Most of the work is by the SnorkMaiden; Moomintroll helps out with the dates and has been making her own mini posters for her scrapbook.

Taxonomy or classification has always been an interest of mine, so I felt I had to start sharing it with the girls. We began with the five Kingdoms of Life and are now looking in depth at the Animal Kingdom.

a page in their scrapbooks

Of course this topic warranted a field trip, so we visited the aquarium and took photos and wrote down lots of scientific names for further research.


the newest Aptenodytes patagonicus chick




Phyllopteryx taeniolatus


Homo sapiens homeschoolicus


The sewing/craft set up has been a hit. Nearly everyday for a week both girls could be found sifting through piles of fabric and sewing up all sorts of items for their baby dolls like pillows, sleeping bags and blankets. Here are two of the best items they created - a quilt by Moomintroll and a tote bag by SnorkMaiden.


The girls entertained us with their ballet class open days:







We took a trip to the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens for easter. We're not up to learning about the Plant Kingdom yet but hopefully the girls soaked up some interesting facts while we were there :)




Our latest expedition was to Williamstown to see the fantastic Sea Shepherd boats - the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker and the Sam Simon.  We toured two of these ships and learned alot about the injustices going on in the Southern Ocean.


surveying the damage done to the Sam Simon by Japanese whalers


sitting in the Skipper's seat

the Steve Irwin
We've had a really busy month. I am hoping to slow things down a little in the coming weeks. With the weather finally getting its act together and getting cooler I think we're all looking forward to some cosy and warm, in front of the heater, read all day, stay at home pajama days.